Representing "U" ─ Popular Culture, Media, and Higher Education

From the magazines and newspapers of the mid-1800s to movies and apps of the twenty-first century, popular culture and media in the United States provide prolific representations of higher education. This report positions artifacts of popular culture as pedagogic texts able to (mis)educate viewers and consumers regarding the purpose, values, and people of higher education. It:

• Discusses scholarly literature across disciplines
• Examines a diverse array of cross-media artifacts
• Reveals pedagogical messages embedded in popular culture texts to prompt thinking about the multiple ways higher education isrepresented to society through the media.

Informative and engaging, higher education professionals can use the findings to intentionally challenge the (mis)educating messages about higher education through programs, policies, and perspectives.

This is the 4th issue of the 40th volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education issue, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.

Issue Editor: PAULINE J. REYNOLDS is an associate professor and program chair for the higher education MA program at the University of Redlands, in Southern California.